XPA-1,To much power??

[kiwiemo]

Hi all. Been a while since I posted, it's taken 6months to final get my XPA-1's. But that's another story.

So I plugged the amps in, all correctly, and turned on a tune, working well, so up the volume a touch, still good, short story short, end result I think they fried my not so old KEF R900's. (8 months old).

Was the choice of amps to much for the Speakers??

Any help will be good

Chur
Kiwiemo

[novisnick]

May 8, 2017 22:15:35 GMT -5 kiwiemo said:

Hi all. Been a while since I posted, it's taken 6months to final get my XPA-1's. But that's another story.

So I plugged the amps in, all correctly, and turned on a tune, working well, so up the volume a touch, still good, short story short, end result I think they fried my not so old KEF R900's. (8 months old).

Was the choice of amps to much for the Speakers??

Any help will be good

Chur
Kiwiemo

I'm thinking that you may have fed the speakers too much juice. Its not unheard of ya know. How loud was it before they smoked? 

Did the amps redline or blow a fuse?

[dcg44s]

Those are pretty efficient speakers (90db),if you blew them it must have been pretty loud.Were you giving it the gas pretty hard? Not trying to knock you here,we have all been guilty of cranking it up hard at one time or another.The amps are rated for more than twice what the speakers are even at 8 ohms so I suppose its possible but I would have expected you to back off before then.

[leonski]

Any AUDIBLE sign of distress prior to the smoke being released?

It's your own fault, you know.

Several things happen to speakers as you feed them more power. They get HOT inside, for one. Electrically they change, too.

Simpliest Explanation::

www.sweetwater.com/insync/power-compression/

If you like it THAT loud, you might consider Cerwin Vega. Some of them are pretty darn durable and will get you evicted from the STATE before they burn up.

[novisnick]

Ive fed a set of Klipsch 28's with mt XPR-1's, ( 1,750 watts @ 4 ohms ) and never smoked them! They got loud and changed their sound signature a bit but I never over drove them. Loved the db's they were able to reach but I never listened to music at those volumes. NOT health at all my friends! 😋

[kiwiemo]

Thanks for the comments,
To be honest, the blue LED's only went to about 3/4 on the display, there was no sound change that I heard, I only notice the damage when I put on another track, and only drove it at the volume for maybe 20seconds. It was loud but clear.

Stupid question but why the one uniQ and not both?

Thanks

Kiwiemo

[frenchyfranky]

To your question; XPA-1,To much power??

Answer is: NO

[lehighvalleyjeff]

Your amp's Maximum Power is not the problem. I've run XPR-1's on bookshelf speakers (sounded amazing) with no issues. The problem sounds like you had the amps driving at 3/4 power nominally, however there is a difference between nominal and peak. One strong bass note could easily take the amp from 3/4 power to clipping in a fraction of a second.

My guess is that you pushed your KEFs way too hard and that in the future you might consider keeping the volume down. Your speakers and your amps both have limits. It's important to understand those limits before pushing any system to the edge.

[novisnick]

May 9, 2017 0:33:06 GMT -5 lehighvalleyjeff said:

Your amp's Maximum Power is not the problem. I've run XPR-1's on bookshelf speakers (sounded amazing) with no issues. The problem sounds like you had the amps driving at 3/4 power nominally, however there is a difference between nominal and peak. One strong bass note could easily take the amp from 3/4 power to clipping in a fraction of a second.

My guess is that you pushed your KEFs way too hard and that in the future you might consider keeping the volume down. Your speakers and your amps both have limits. It's important to understand those limits before pushing any system to the edge.

I agree, I've also driven a set of KEF LS50's with XPR's and they loved the power, you just have to make sure you know the " Power of the Dark side "!!

[gzubeck]

May 8, 2017 22:15:35 GMT -5 kiwiemo said:

Hi all. Been a while since I posted, it's taken 6months to final get my XPA-1's. But that's another story.

So I plugged the amps in, all correctly, and turned on a tune, working well, so up the volume a touch, still good, short story short, end result I think they fried my not so old KEF R900's. (8 months old).

Was the choice of amps to much for the Speakers??

Any help will be good

Chur
Kiwiemo

Are they still under warranty? Are both of them damaged? I see that they can handle 115 db...did you go past that volume?

[stiehl11]

Speaker are rated for 115db, which is about half power for the XPA-1. 3db more and you're clipping both the amp and the speaker. If you were at 67% of the amp then one thump of the bass and you're in the danger zone. If you have THAT large of a room that you need to be driving amps and speakers at that level I suggest you look at pro-series gear like they use in auditoriums and arenas.

[mountain]

Sorry to hear this.  I know I would be disappointed.  Good luck getting your speakers fixed.

[brutiarti]

The opposite happened to me. I fried the ribbon tweeters of my helicons for feeding them not enough power.

[bootman]

To answer the OP's question, no such thing as too much clean power.
But there is such a thing as the physical limits of a speaker.

[novisnick]

May 9, 2017 8:28:03 GMT -5 bootman said:

To answer the OP's question, no such thing as too much clean power.
But there is such a thing as the physical limits of a speaker.

 
Big ol BINGO for this answer!!

novisnick
CEO SMBS

[jcz06]

I have XPR-1s on Legacy Focus SEs......they don't miss a beat and love the power.....

[DYohn]

May 9, 2017 8:19:06 GMT -5 brutiarti said:

The opposite happened to me. I fried the ribbon tweeters of my helicons for feeding them not enough power.

Not really. You fried them because your amp was clipping and sending too much power. It is impossible for "too little power" to fry a voice coil. But it's a common misconception.

[brutiarti]

May 9, 2017 9:31:07 GMT -5 DYohn said:

May 9, 2017 8:19:06 GMT -5 brutiarti said:

The opposite happened to me. I fried the ribbon tweeters of my helicons for feeding them not enough power.

Not really. You fried them because your amp was clipping and sending too much power. It is impossible for "too little power" to fry a voice coil. But it's a common misconception.

Yep, you are correct. That is the technical explanation

[Gary Cook]

You really need to indentify which driver is "fried". So is it both speakers, left and right, or just one? It may not be both. Low volume, head close to one speaker and listen, then same with the. Once you have identified which speaker then you need to identify which driver in that speaker. Same process, low volume place one ear close to each of the drivers and try and identify which one it is. Good chance it's the tweeter, they usually die first from over driving. Replacing s tweeter or a pair of tweeters is no big deal, and not hugely expensive. So don't chuck out perfectly good speakers until you identify what's cooked and how much it's going to cost to fix it. Speaker repair people are common so check around your local area. KEF drivers can be obtained direct from KEF or from your local distributor.

Cheers
Gary

[garbulky]

May 9, 2017 10:11:59 GMT -5 brutiarti said:

May 9, 2017 9:31:07 GMT -5 DYohn said:

Not really. You fried them because your amp was clipping and sending too much power. It is impossible for "too little power" to fry a voice coil. But it's a common misconception.

Yep, you are correct. That is the technical explanation

But it happened due to not having enough power! (rofl)Too little gave too much!